Arkanaut:Meh. If the old guard doesn't want reform, they'll kill it the easy way: through bureaucratic obfuscation.

The old guard is keenly aware things are eventually going to change, they just want it to happen very slowly. The Chinese made a very smart move years ago - they made a policy of enacting economic reform instead of political reform. They'll get there, eventually, but they'll have an economy that can better support their population. Imagine if China had, in the late 80s-early 90s, gone the route of Russia. The political chaos would have seriously destabilized Asia.

UNC_Samurai:Imagine if China had, in the late 80s-early 90s, gone the route of Russia. The political chaos would have seriously destabilized Asia.

one could also argue that China is familiar with political chaos and periods of time with various separate states vying for total control. If anything, a unified China is probably the most impressive thing to come out of China in 3000 years.

They could've gone through a "fall of the soviet" period as Russia, but they could've pulled themselves out of it fairly quickly. They'd almost half to with their neighbors more than willing to gobble bits of them up.

I'm in the software industry and have started noticing this trend as well. My last company laid off most of the developers (including h1b visas) to outsource to china.

several of the Indian people who were laid off explained to me that prices for goods in India have increased nearly 500%. Seems like they eventually catch up to us in cost and then we go to the next cheap company and start all over.

Arkanaut:Wendy's Chili: Does China have a history of killing its leaders that I don't know about?

Not since Mao died, but there were a few rivals of his that were removed violently:

Liu ShaoqiLin Biao

And Xi's leading competitor (Bo) was just put on trial and convicted. Something tells me the boot is on the other foot - comply or I will crush you is the message being issued.

That said, I'm not sure how well land reform will be implemented. If it goes through, the local party officials are being told they really have to step up their game, as their ability to put land in the hands of developers to move the infrastructure forward is diminished, and the very threat that keeps the peasants down (we'll take your land") is severely diminished. The concern from Beijing though might be the petty corruption that the current structure enables is undermining the legitimacy of the party... and that must be protected at all costs.